Phillips could have easily been a stickler for rules and told Murray – who never made it to the table – that he had to wait until the next stoppage of play. But Phillips knew Murray was on his way to checking in long before the play was dead and allowed him to enter the game.

”Thank you,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said, and Phillips nodded.

There were moments of civility like this between referees, players and coaches this season. They just were overshadowed way too often. Now everyone is watching to see how things unfold in the playoffs.

The league wants to avoid more headline-grabbing confrontation with the playoffs starting Saturday and stakes and emotion becoming even higher, so officials met with all 30 teams , the last of those on Monday.

”We all make mistakes,” Toronto coach Dwane Casey said. ”It’s a game. We’re all a part of it. We’re all in the NBA. The officials are part of the NBA. So we have to understand that we’re all under the same corporation.”

There have been instances where they have looked more like combatants.

Referee Courtney Kirkland was taken off the floor for a week for getting too aggressive with Golden State’s Shaun Livingston. Warriors star Kevin Durant – who’d been ejected once in his first nine seasons – got kicked out of five games. Even LeBron James got tossed for the first time in his 15-year career.

It all led the NBA to announce in late January its plan to improve how players and referees get along. Former referee Monty McCutchen, now an NBA vice president overseeing referee development and training, and NBA senior vice president Michelle Johnson met with clubs to listen to their perspective.

McCutchen’s biggest hope is finding a way to make communication better, on all sides. He stressed to teams that he wasn’t meeting with them solely to defend and protect officials.

”Our league needs strong officials,” McCutchen said. ”What we’re trying to shoot for is this idea that you can have strength without arrogance and you can show humility without having to give into weakness. And that sort of Goldilocks moment Alex Wood Los Angeles Dodgers Jersey , where the porridge is just right, is the balance in which we can start to disagree about the play without being demeaning or condescending or arrogant to one another.”

That hasn’t been the case at times this season.

It’s rare that a call will truly decide a game, and the NBA is sticking to its pledge of transparency by continuing to release reports about calls made in the final two minutes of close games. The Last 2 Minute Reports have been widely panned by players and coaches, especially when those reports show that a big call didn’t go their way in a close loss.

For the 400-plus games that have met the criteria for such a report being publicly issued this season, the NBA has said 97.4 percent of the calls made – in other words, 39 out of every 40 – are correct. When factoring in no-calls, what the NBA defines as ”event accuracy” drops to 93.9 percent.

But there have also been some difficult moments.

Livingston and Kirkland butted heads in a game at Miami, earning the Warriors guard a one-game suspension and Kirkland’s discipline after the league determined they were both in the wrong in their argument over a non-call. Through Sunday, there were 79 ejections this season – up considerably from the 61 last season. The NBA said 902 technicals were called last season; that figure has also been topped this season, albeit only by about 30.

Draymond Green, who isn’t shy about getting technicals, has complained. So has Chris Paul Rasheem Green Color Rush Jersey , the president of the National Basketball Players Association.

”To be honest, we need to kind of just go out there and play, and not worry about anything but that,” Toronto guard Kyle Lowry said. ”We can’t worry about what happened, even legitimately. We have to just go play and not say anything and just do our jobs. I think that’ll be a focus for the rest of the season for our team.”

But Lowry knows, starting Saturday, everything gets magnified.

”You can’t get distracted or obsess on the officials or things that happen during the game that you can’t necessarily control,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. ”You can’t cross the line consistently and expect to develop the right mental toughness that you need to win.”

—

Johan Camargo came up big from the bottom of the Atlanta Braves‘ lineup.

The No. 9 batter hit his first career grand slam and went 4 for 5 with five RBIs, and the Braves beat the Blue Jays 11-4 on Tuesday night to snap Toronto’s home winning streak at seven games.

The bottom four hitters in Atlanta’s lineup, DH Kurt Suzuki, outfielders Charlie Culberson and Ender Inciarte, and third baseman Camargo Brian O'Neill Color Rush Jersey , went 11 for 18 with five doubles and two home runs.

”This team is just really good up and down the lineup,” Camargo said through a translator.

Camargo hit his seventh home run off Jaime Garcia (2-6) in the second, singled in the fourth, hit an RBI single in the fifth and doubled and scored in the eighth. He struck out in the ninth.

Culberson hit a solo homer and Inciarte had three hits and three RBIs as the Braves won for the sixth time in seven games. Reliever Sam Freeman (2-3) worked 2 1/3 innings for the victory.

Making his first start in Canada, Calgary-born right-hander Mike Soroka was replaced one out from qualifying for the win.

”He threw some good sinkers but a lot of stuff was right down the middle,” Snitker said.

Soroka allowed four runs and eight hits, including six doubles, in 4 2/3 innings.

”It was everything I imagined, for sure, coming out there and seeing a lot of Canadians, a lot of Canadian flags Cheap Josh Allen Jersey ,” Soroka said. ”Hearing the anthem was pretty special, too.”

Soroka took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of his previous outing, June 13 against the New York Mets, but started this one by giving up a double to Blue Jays outfielder Curtis Granderson.

Toronto put runners at second and third with two outs in the first but left-fielder Culberson made a great running catch on Kevin Pillar’s line drive before crashing hard into the video board section of the outfield wall. Culberson went down briefly but stayed in the game.

”That’s one of the first holy cow plays I saw,” a grateful Soroka said. ”I definitely owe him dinner.”

Garcia retired the first five batters in order before Kurt Suzuki’s double in the second. Culberson and Inciarte walked and Garcia fell behind 2-0 on Camargo before giving up a towering shot that landed in the third deck.

”It was really kind of a special moment, something I’ll never forget,” Camargo said.

Culberson connected off Garcia to begin the third before Inciarte and Camargo chased Garcia with consecutive singles.

Garcia allowed five runs and five hits in three-plus innings, failing to finish the fourth for the second time in four starts. The left-hander has lost six straight decisions and is winless since April 17 against Kansas City, his third start of the season.

A lawyer for Blue Jays RHP Roberto Osuna said Monday that his client will plead not guilty to charges of assault. After he was arrested and charged May 8, Osuna was placed on administrative leave. On Monday, baseball extended Osuna’s leave through June 25. Osuna’s lawyer was in court Monday. The case is set to resume July 9.

URGENT CARE

Snitker was asked what he thought when Culberson went down following his collision with the wall.

”I was wondering if I’m going to be able to make it out there Ian Thomas Color Rush Jersey ,” Snitker joked. ”He’d be healed by the time I get there.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Braves: OF Ronald Acuna (left knee) has taken batting practice and run the past two days in workouts at Atlanta’s spring training facility in Florida. Snitker said the highly touted Acuna should begin a rehab assignment ”sooner rather than later.”

Blue Jays: RHP Marcus Stroman (shoulder) threw a 75-pitch simulated game Monday after his scheduled start at Double-A New Hampshire was rained out. Stroman is expected to rejoin the Blue Jays rotation during the coming weekend’s road series against the Angels. … OF Steve Pearce (strained left oblique) went 1 for 3 with a home run at Triple-A Buffalo, playing five innings in left field. Pearce was the DH in his previous two rehab games with the Bisons, Saturday and Sunday. … Toronto put RHP Sam Gaviglio on the paternity list and promoted INF Lourdes Gurriel Jr. from Buffalo.